• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

High BG in the morning

S

SimonPK

Newbie
Messages
3
Hi

First-time poster... Hello everyone!

I am a 49 year old T1 and for quite a few years I have been experiencing occasional but regular high BG in the morning (11-15). My BG is okay going to bed - around 8-10 and (when I do tests close together before bed) it seems to be falling slowly. Sometimes to counteract the fact that it will fall slowly overnight I take some carbs and other times I don't. But I can't quite get my head round why sometimes it is high with or without carbs.

Occasionally I know that I am going low during the night (I have trouble getting to sleep and generally feel I am a little low but know that it is not serious and I just can't quite be bothered to get up - especially if it is cold!) and then I wake up a bit high. I understand why that is but there are plenty of nights when that is not the case I I still wake up with high BG. Sometimes I have drunk some alcohol and I factor that in but again there are plenty of times when that is not a factor. Overall my control is good but morning's confound me sometimes...

I have read posts about the Dawn Phenomenon - if it is not low BG during the night causing the highs it must be that, right? I'd be interested to hear your opinions and what I can actually do about it.

Thanks,
Simon

PS Cool forum - I'm learning a lot
 
Very hard question to answer, espcially without a CGM to show what happens during the night. I use the Libre, and althouh most nights are pretty stable, on some nights I peak 3 times to over 8 or 9 and drop to around or below 4 while going to bed and waking at around 6. I would never have known without my sensor!
One thing else in your question stood out fo me:
SimonPK said:
know that it is not serious and I just can't quite be bothered to get up
Click to expand...
Why would you have to get up for a hypo? With a meter and treatment right beside you bed you're a lot safer.

Good luck!
 
Hi SimonPK and welcome to our exclusive club. I assume you are talking mmol/l.
Low at night when asleep can be very dangerous. I would have a chat to your medical team. I think your Basil needs some adjustment.
Nearly all of us go high in the morning, it’s called the Dawn Phenomenon. Your liver starts to dump glucose to give you energy as you wake up. 8-10 before bed is a little high and 11-15 mmol/l is way to high. A good Diabetic Educator /Nurse will be able to get you going again without much trouble.
 
Antje77 said:
Very hard question to answer, espcially without a CGM to show what happens during the night. I use the Libre, and althouh most nights are pretty stable, on some nights I peak 3 times to over 8 or 9 and drop to around or below 4 while going to bed and waking at around 6. I would never have known without my sensor!
One thing else in your question stood out fo me:

Why would you have to get up for a hypo? With a meter and treatment right beside you bed you're a lot safer.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I have a meter and treatment beside me but as I'm not sleeping anyway to treat it I would get up so as not to disturb my SO. I don't have CGM so I'd need to manually check at intervals to see what it is doing. When I have done this before it was never on a day when I was inexplicably high.
 
Chowie said:
Hi SimonPK and welcome to our exclusive club. I assume you are talking mmol/l.
Low at night when asleep can be very dangerous. I would have a chat to your medical team. I think your Basil needs some adjustment.
Nearly all of us go high in the morning, it’s called the Dawn Phenomenon. Your liver starts to dump glucose to give you energy as you wake up. 8-10 before bed is a little high and 11-15 mmol/l is way to high. A good Diabetic Educator /Nurse will be able to get you going again without much trouble.
Click to expand...

I'm only talking slightly low - not enough that it worries me.

So a lot of people experience the Dawn Phenomenon? How do you deal with it?
 
SimonPK said:
I'm only talking slightly low - not enough that it worries me.

So a lot of people experience the Dawn Phenomenon? How do you deal with it?
Click to expand...
Have breakfast as soon as you get up and Bolus and eat a little less or Bolus a little more if your medical team is allowing you to select your insulin dose. I’m now on a pump and I skip breakfast, so as soon as I wake up I check my BGL and correct and check a few more times and I’m good. I do have CGM as well that makes it very easy.
 
Perhaps ask your diabetes team if you can have a trial of the FreeStyle Libre CGM. I did one last year and it gives you 10 days of CGM data. If not you can buy one from a pharmacy or online (no prescription needed) although they are £40-60 depending on where you go.

I had the same issue and I did a CGM trial years ago, found out I just have an exaggerated Dawn Phenomenon so my glucose begins to rise, at about 6am, by 4-6 mmol/L. I couldn't have more basal before bed or I would hypo at 2-3am. My solution was an insulin pump where I can control the basal hour-by-hour.
 
PepperTed said:
Perhaps ask your diabetes team if you can have a trial of the FreeStyle Libre CGM. I did one last year and it gives you 10 days of CGM data.
Click to expand...
The Libre available in the UK provide 14 days of data.
I believe the ones available in the US only provide 10 days.
 
Hey! If the idea of seeking out new tech seems overwhelming or your team are hard to get in touch with, maybe just try overnight basal tests. So! Test when you go to bed and then set alarms for midnight, 3am and 6am and then when you get up. Your DSN can learn a LOT from that and despite from all the forum talk most diabetics are still relying on this sort of thing so gather a few nights of this data over a week or so and then phone your nurse I'd say :)
 
Back
Top